Mandy's Halloween Treat
by DyNaMoDave
Summary: In this story, Mandy decides to give a very special Halloween treat to someone who helped her on her first Halloween.


In this story, Mandy, Grim, and Billy are approaching an extremely decorated up Halloween house. A very old man lives there, and his is the neighborhood's favorite house to visit on Halloween as he always has the most candy, the best decorations, and he's the most friendly with the kids. If you missed this house on Halloween, well, too bad for you.

Mandy is dressed as a witch and Grim is with her. There are a group of kids leaving as they walk up to the front of his garage. He has moved his car, raised the door, and decorated the interior to look like a dungeon with a dark interior and flickering torches complete with a scary sound effects tape. To get to the candy, you have to walk past all the scary motion sensor activated decorations and figures to the back. It all depends on how bad you want the candy. After all, it IS Halloween you know! He's not going to just give it to you. You have to get into the spirit of the thing. The candy is in a cauldron up against the far wall. The old man smiles as he sees her.

"Nice to see you this year. How's my favorite Trick or Treater? It just isn't Halloween for me unless you come by." That was part of the old man's charm. He made each kid feel Halloween was made just for them.

She begins to answer but an over enthusiastic Billy elbows past to get to the candy cauldron. He is dressed as Freddy Krueger and uses his glove hand to scoop the candy out. It doesn't have actual knives Like Freddy's of course, just very big spoons which Billy has fashioned for scooping up the treats. There seems to be a method to Billy's madness. Maybe he isn't as nutty as people think.

"CANDY, CAANDY, CAAANDY! CAAAAN-DEEE!" Billy scampers off to fall into a sugar induced coma somewhere as Mandy does a searing, glaring double double take at him and at the pretty much empty cauldron!

Grim does a face palm, and mutters in exasperation, "Greedy, inconsiderate brat! I hope he gets sick. Didn't even say, Trick or Treat! There's a ritual to dis, ya dig!

Noting Mandy's face, the old man makes a follow me gesture to her. They enter a side room and on a smaller table is another cauldron.

"These special treats are for you, my most loyal customer. The one with the most exquisite and discriminating taste. Take as many as you want." He bows to her like a member of a royal court to his Queen.

Grim almost missed it, but he caught Mandy grinning ever, ever, so slightly as she played along. Her expression is one of jaw dropping amazement now as she sees the cauldron is full of exquisite and expensive, hand made, imported European chocolates and cookies. They're from Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, and England and must have cost a small fortune just to ship them.

The old man speaks again, "Go ahead." He nods to Grim, "You too. You deserve a treat for that fabulous Grim Reaper costume. It looks very real!"

Mandy shoots Grim an odd look at that, but says nothing. Instead, she politely speaks to her elderly host. From time to time, Mandy could be polite and respectful to adults and this was one of those times.

"Thank you very much, sir. I know these aren't the mass marketed store bought candies." She pauses and takes a bite from one of the pieces she has unwrapped, "and they taste FAAABULOUS!" She looks almost like she's hypnotized. This visit alone has made her night!

Grim adds in agreement, "They're...*munch, munch* HEAVENLY, mon!"

"I'm happy you enjoyed them. It's my reward for your yearly visits, good manners and respect for me and Halloween. Nowadays, kids are so rude and you almost never see a decorated house anymore. I want kids to have great memories of their childhood. Great memories make great adults, I think."

Grim winked at the old man and nodded towards Mandy, "Great parents someday, too, huh?" Mandy frowned at him ever so slightly at that and decided to let it pass as she was too busy enjoying her expensive treats. Mandy having kids in the future? Mandy was too busy being a kid right now to worry about things like that!

Grim and the old man had a good natured chuckle at Mandy's expense when Mandy, still chewing, spoke in alarm, "EF THOT CROK RYTE?" She pointed to a clock above a workbench. It was almost 11pm. Two hours past the Endsville 9pm Halloween curfew.

The old man turned, "Why, yes. Yes, it is. Guess you best be going. It's past Halloween curfew." He smiled, took out a burlap bag, dumped the cauldron into it, and handed it to Mandy.

"Burlap t'ain't very Halloweeny, but it'll do!"

Noticing Mandy's amazed is all this for me expression, he spoke, "Oh, it's okay. My ancient tummy can't tolerate that fancy candy anyway. Trust me there! Besides, I paid too much for it jes' tah toss it."

Grim and Mandy say their goodbyes and leave the smaller room, walk out of the dungeon, and out to the sidewalk. Behind them, the old man turns off his outside lights and they hear the garage door lowering. Halloween is over for him, and it is time for bed.

Halloween niceties aside, and out of earshot of the old man's house, Mandy confronted Grim, "How could he see you? I thought only Billy's family and my family could see you."

Grim, pretending not to hear, spoke, "That was some haul, huh?" Grim licks his bony fingers, "Nom, Nom, NOM!"

"GRIM, WHAT IS GOIN' ON!?" There was an insistence and sharpness in her voice that Grim knew all too well. He might as well tell her as she'd nag him incessantly until he did.

Relenting, Grim let out a deep sigh. "Mandy...listen...sometimes...when people are close...dey can see me."

Close? Close to what? Grim...you're scarin' me!

Grim stopped walking and what he said caused Mandy to drop her bag in shock!

"Mandy, listen to me. You ever heard de phrase living on borrowed time? Dat ol' goat shoulda crossed dem pearly gates back in de early summer, but now he's finally ready. I tink he wanted one more Halloween. He has an advanced Stage Four cancer. It's terminal, and there's nothing I can do. You know dat, Mandy. You know dat."

Grim braced, fully expecting to be on the receiving end of an extremely vicious Mandy tongue lashing, and he was surprised when she haltingly spoke.

"I...know...your job. I get it. How...long until...you?"

"Not long. Two minutes after midnight tonight."

"THAT SOON? NOOO!" Mandy glared daggers at him and turned to run down the street back towards the old man's house.

Quickly, Grim grabbed her arm, and spun her around. The force was such that it spun her witch hat off. Surprised that he'd ever DARE to do that, she halted.

"Mandy, you can't interfere! You can't stop what has to be."

Mandy shook her head in a huff! "You DON'T understand, Grim! I won't let on. I want to say goodbye!"

There was a look in her eyes that Grim had rarely seen. Occasionally, when she really cared about something, like when Billy was thought dead when they were fighting the Boogey Man to get Grim's powers back, he had seen that look."

Grim nodded understanding acceptance, let her go, and spoke. "I'll see you at de house, den." He then spun his scythe to open up a portal.

"Dis will take you right to his front door, an' before you ask, I'll find Billy."

Mandy gave Grim a quick nod of understanding and stepped through the portal. When it had closed, Grim picked up Mandy's witch hat and candy bag, started whistling the Funeral March tune, popped another piece of candy into his mouth, and started walking home.

True to his word, Grim was correct when Mandy stepped out of the portal. She was at the old man's screened in front porch. Trying the screen door, she found it was already locked. The shades were also down around the screened in areas, and the lights were out which meant he was probably in bed.

Not wasting any time, she began repeatedly knocking and ringing the outer doorbell.

She was about to knock and ring again, but heard the footsteps of the old man approaching the door of the main house. In a flash, she took off her hairband and held it in front of her with both hands sort of like a barrier. Truth be told, now that the moment was at hand, she had no idea how to start.

The screen door opened and the old man looked at her a bit puzzled. "Why, hello again little hair down witch. That suits you with that costume. Are you lost? Do I need to call 911?"

Mandy absentmindedly fluffed her hair a bit. She normally didn't do such things like spoiled brat Mindy, but he was different, and meant it genuinely.

"911? err, no. I...I...wantedtodo...somethingforyou while there's still time." She paused to catch her breath and focus her emotions.

"Take your time. Come on in, and sit."

Mandy thought there wasn't time TO sit but stepped inside anyway and let the creaky screen door close lightly on its own. The old man reached over and flicked on a small porch light.

"Best have a bit of light since its dark, and the shades are down. Now what's on your mind?"

Mandy began, "You've been so nice to us kids over the years. One of my first Halloween memories is coming to this house. I tripped and began to cry, and everybody was laughing, but you picked me up, andIfeltbetter."

She paused again to catch her breath. She did not want to start crying, damn it.

"I just wanted to say thank you for giving us kids some great memories, and I wanted to give you something in return."

"Why, thank you little witch. Thank you very much. What do you want to give me?"

My name is Mandy, and this is for you. She gave him her hairband. "Its a symbol to remember all the kids that ever came by your house and had a great Halloween."

Now it was the old man's turn to try and keep from crying, "Thank you, Man...dee. It means a lot, really. Since my wife passed a few years ago, I've paid extra attention to any holiday that involved children. She...she liked to do that, Mandy. Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, any chance to be nice to kids." He nodded to Mandy, pointed to a small table that was between them, and placed the hairband in front of an elegant elderly woman's photo. It had to have been his wife, and she was touched he placed it there.

Seeing that, Mandy took in a great big gulp of air as if readying herself for something.

"There's one more thing." She looked around. "The shades are down, good."

"Shades, Mandy?"

"Yes, shades. This is for you." With that, Mandy took a deep breath, lowered her head, and when she brought it back up, her face was lit up with the most radiant smile the old man had ever seen on a child.

"I kinda don't smile much...which...explains...theshades. THANKYOUFOR...*whimper*..every-THING!"

She gave the old man a bear hug and if you could've seen Mandy from the back, you'd have seen a single tear on her face.

"Thank you, Mandy. Your whole face was lit up. What a wonderful TREAT!"

*****The End*****


End file.
